Jersey City schoolteacher is a Golden Gloves champ chasing the American Dream

Few traces of Nicoy Clarke’s other life exist within his classroom at Joseph’s School of Tomorrow, a Christian school hiding in plain sight on Jersey City’s main thoroughfare.

Inside the tiny elementary school on Kennedy Boulevard, the low hum of children’s voices echoes through the narrow hallways and corridors. In the rear of the nondescript one-story building is Clarke’s classroom, which he shares with one of the school’s six other teachers.

There is space for eight miniature desks, two dry erase boards and a pair of full-size desks for the teachers, but not much else. No larger than a boxing ring Clarke’s alternative sanctuary the cramped quarters are home to one of his passions: teaching.

Amateur boxer, math teacher and musician, the Jamaican-born Clarke has his hand in a little bit of everything these days.

In April, he won the New Jersey Golden Gloves title for the super heavyweight (201 pounds and up) novice division. He wrapped up his third year at Joseph’s School of Tomorrow earlier this week. Today, he returns to action in the ring at 2 p.m. at the Ninth Annual Waheed Community Boxing Show in Elizabeth.

While Clarke’s boxing career is still in its early stages, it is a small segment of a dynamic journey.

“I always tell them (the students) to follow their dreams,” said Clarke, a 31-year-old bachelor. “When I left Jamaica, I always told myself, ‘I’m going to accomplish that American Dream.’ I still see myself fighting for it.”

FROM JAMAICA TO JERSEY

Born and raised in the St. James Parish of Jamaica, Clarke’s love affair with boxing began at a young age. He recalls the animated matches he and his friends would orchestrate in the school yard, creating mock mouthpieces out of crumpled pieces of paper and gloves from cardboard boxes.

During his childhood in a hardscrabble neighborhood in Farm Heights, St. James, he watched American sitcoms like “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” “The Cosby Show” and “A Different World,” and fantasized about a new life in America.

“We came here because when you’re in Jamaica, you’re thinking that money is all over the floor in America,” Clarke said. “When we came here, we were thinking that life would be real beautiful, but we see that it’s a struggle also.”

He immigrated to the United States at age 11 with his mother and siblings, moving into his grandmother’s home in the Park Chester section of the Bronx, which also housed a small horde of aunts, uncles and cousins.

In 1999, at age 17, he graduated from John F. Kennedy High School in the Bronx and enrolled at Saint Peter’s College later that year. But the day before leaving for college, he came home from a night out with friends and learned that his estranged father, Anthony, had been shot in the head during an apparent carjacking in Far Rockaway, Queens.

Anthony whom Clarke says was absent for most of his childhood survived the shooting, but the icy relationship between father and son continued.

“At that point I didn’t have any remorse for him, because he was almost like a stranger to me.”

Once in Jersey City, Clarke began performing his music a blend of hip hop, reggae and Jamaican patois under the stage name “Zilla.” It wasn’t until he wrote a song titled “Daddy?” that the two began mending their fractured relationship.

Clarke says his father has yet to see one of his performances or boxing matches, but remains hopeful that day is coming.

FINDING A HOME

Previously a substitute teacher at Lincoln High School, Clarke became a math teacher at Ferris High School, but was laid off in 2010. Shortly thereafter, he took up boxing and landed a new Jersey City school position as a compensatory education teacher.

With just over 40 students and a mere eight staff members, Joseph’s School of Tomorrow is classified as a “nonpublic school” by the New Jersey Department of Education and receives services from the state. Among those services are teachers like Clarke, who teaches math to third-, fourth- and fifth-graders, and provides compensatory education to students in need of additional help.

“He’s very different, you don’t see a tough guy at all,” said Vanessa Abreu, the school’s interim administrator.

“(The students) are always asking about his matches. Whenever he wins, he shares it with the class. It’s a good relationship.”

Dr. Andrea Blake-Garrett, the supervisor of nonpublic schools for the Jersey City Public Schools, oversees Clarke and has watched him grow as an educator over the past three years. While Clarke’s boxing exploits remain a favorite topic of conversation among his students, it eluded Blake-Garrett for some time. It wasn’t until he showed up with a black eye one day that his sport of choice came to light.

“I was like, ‘What happened to you!’ Because I really didn’t know that he was a boxer. It was a bad one too, it was all blue and purple. I was thinking, ‘I have a teacher who is some kind of crazy nut after the work day is over,’ ” she said, laughing. “Now everyone knows that Mr. Clarke is a boxer and they all support him and his efforts.

“I call him the gentle giant. Once and a while he comes in with a black eye. The kids are like, ‘You’ve got to duck Mr. Clarke!’ ”

ANOTHER VOCATION

In August 2010, Clarke was 29 years old, out of work and searching for a outlet. That’s when he found himself at the Renegade Boxing Club in Jersey City, learning the sport from former professional heavyweight Steve Felton.

The 49-year-old trainer, who has coached four Golden Gloves champions, operates the gym out of the basement of his Warner Street home. With no ring and just a few punching bags, his fighters must venture to other gyms for sparring sessions before bouts. Making the most of the limited resources is just part of the deal.

“We had a treadmill, but it broke,” Felton said.

Clarke took up the sport and began his journey through the amateur ranks with little equipment and without the technical skills other fighters his age usually possess.

“Raw as a potato,” Felton said, recalling his initial thoughts of Clarke. “It looked like he had two left feet.”

But whatever deficiencies the southpaw possessed, the raw power of his thunderous left hook garnered Felton’s full attention.

Clarke reached the super heavyweight finals of the 2010 Diamond Gloves tournament and the duo has since worked on Clarke’s right hand and defense. That practice paid off in April when Clarke scored a three-round victory over William Panissidi in the super heavyweight finals of this year’s New Jersey Golden Gloves tournament.

“It was significant for him, definitely,” Felton said. “It boosted his whole thinking process. Now he’s trying to listen more so he can learn more. Now he has to learn how to defend himself even better. He has gotten better, no doubt about it.”

With today’s fight, Clarke will have 10 amateur bouts under his belt, making him eligible to compete as an open class fighter. The next step, he says, is entering the professional ranks.

What that means for his teaching career remains to be seen, but Clarke has learned to strike a balance.

“It doesn’t look like it’s a good mix, but it’s a great mix. It does teach self-discipline to the children. He arrives on time, he’s always prepared,” said Blake-Garrett. “Those are things you need in the ring.”